The US 2010/0327847 A1 discloses a solid state molecular sensor having an aperture extending through a graphene layer. A change in an electrical characteristic of said layer is measured when a molecule passes through said aperture. One drawback of this sensor is the high electrical conductivity of the graphene layer, compared to which conductivity changes induced by a molecule are very small.
Furthermore, it has been described in literature (H. W. Ch. Postma, “Rapid sequencing of individual DNA molecules in graphene nanogaps”, Nano Lett. 10 (2010) 420-425) that a DNA molecule can be sequenced by passing it through a gap between two graphene layers. The associated apparatus is, however, mechanically not very robust as free graphene layers are used. Moreover, the comparatively long gap between said layers allows long molecules to pass it with many different orientations and configurations, making the interpretation of measurement results difficult.